Method for making flocked material



Aug-5,1947! I I J. FERRANTE v I 2,425,236"

METHOD FOR MAKING FLOGKED MATERIAL Filed'Nov. 22, 1943 INVENTOR ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 5, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD FOR MAKING FLOCKED MATERIAL John Ferrante, Johnstown, N. Y., assignor to Kenlea Manufacturing Company, Johnstown, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 22, 1943, Serial No. 511,384

4 Claims. 1

This invention relates to the method and apparatus for flocking open mesh material, and has particular utility in connection with applying flocking material to woven wire screening.

Such flockedopen mesh material may be advantageously used in many ways. For instance, it may be used for targets, particularly tow targets for airplanes, or it may be used for concealing things, as screens and camouflage nets. Another use to which it may be put is that of a filter, particularly an air filter.

According to the present invention, such flocked open mesh material may be made in sheets or continuous strips, and the quantity of material needed for each particular purpose may be cut from such sheets or strips,

In order to increase the utility of such material and improve its efliciency in use, according to my invention the intersecting strands making up the material are preferably locked or secured together against casual relative movement by applying to the material a cementitious product which forms blobs at the intersections and holds the strands of wires or threads from shifting relative to each other. Thus the screening may be cut into sections or maybe cut into or slit without the usual danger of unraveling.

After the strands are thus anchored together,

if the cementitious material is also serviceable as a flock adhesive, flocking material is directed to opposite sides of the screen so that the fibres are caught onto the adhesive surface to be anchored thereby when the adhesive has set. If desired, the cementitious material may be caused to set and then an additional coating may be applied to the open mesh material to anchor the flocking material thereto.

The invention claimed herein is concerned with the apparatus and method of making such material.

The apparatus, according to the present invention, for making the flocked open mesh material may include means for coating the mesh with the cementitious material and causing the same to set, means for applying adhesive to the open mesh material (if an adhesive material in addition to the cementitious material is employed), means for directing toward the open mesh material a quantity of flock to be anchored to the open mesh material by the adhesive thereon, and finally means for causing the adhesive to set and winding up or otherwise delivering the flocked strip or sheet.

In the preferred form of this invention, the flock is directed preferably by gravity toward one side of the open mesh material so that the fibres fall upon and are adhered to that side of the strip. The flock is deposited in such quantity that there is an excess of material which passes through the interstices of the mesh where it falls upon a support, preferably in the form of a traveling belt or conveyor, which, by means of suitable beaters, is agitated to cause the flock deposited thereon to be propelled back against the other side of the open mesh material or screening. In this way, each strand making up the open mesh material, whether the latter be Woven, braided or knitted, is covered not only on one side but on its entire surface with flocking material, and the fibres of the flock project into interstices of the mesh more or less depending upon the size of the mesh and the length of the fibres of the flocking material.

In some cases, of course, it is not necessary or desirable that both sides of the open mesh material be covered with flock, and in other cases it may not be necessary or desirable to provide for anchoring the intersecting strands of the wire together. Hence, it will be understood that the present invention is not limited in all its aspects to the entire apparatus or all of the steps of the method therein disclosed.

Other features and advantages will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawings- Figure 1 is a schematic view showing the appa-- ratus and the operations of producing flocked open mesh fabric.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a strip of material showing, as through a magnifying glass, the coated and flocked portions of the strip.

Fig. 3 is a schematic view showing the cross wires of a woven strip with the Wire securing, cementitious material and the flocking material on the wires.

As shown in the accompanying drawings, the strip of open mesh material H], which may be supplied in the form of a roll H or may be sup plied in sheet form, is passed between rollers I2 and I3, the latter being immersed in a tank M of cementitious material and carrying up to or on the strip I a quantity of this material which, as illustrated in Fig. 2, forms blobs l5 at the intersection of the strands making up the mesh.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the mesh is woven, and thus the blobs l5 anchor together the warp and weft strands or wires so that the web Ill can be cut into pieces of the desired size and shape or can be slit or cut into without danger of the mesh unraveling.

As shown in Fig. l, the cementitious material is set by passing the web I!) under a bank of infra-red lamp 16, but it should be understood that any suitable means for setting the material, depending upon the particular kind of cementitious material employed, may be used, or no special means may be used if the cementitious 1 material is air hardened.

If certain cementitious materials are employed, especially if they are slow drying and also adstation.

However, if an adhesive separate and in addition to the cementitious material is to be employed, the web I0 is passed between coating rollers I 8 and IS. The latter are immersed in a tank of adhesive material so that the latter will be applied to and form a coating on the strands making up the open mesh fabric. The web would then be passed to the pinwheel I? as shown.

After the web leaves the pinwheel ll, it descends onto a conveyor 2|. This may be in the form of an endless belt having guide rollers 22and a tensioning roller 23. The web is carried by this belt past the flocking device 24. This device is made up of a series of brushes 25 and 28 so that flock from a hopper 21 is fed and deposited through a chute 28 in the desired quantity on the advancing adhesive-carrying web ID.

If the flock is to be applied on both sides of the web, an extra quantity of flock is deposited on the upper side, as by falling thereon by gravity, and the surplus, i. e., the quantity of flock which does not adhere to the adhesive carrying open mesh material, falls through the interstices thereof onto the conveyor 2|. This additional quantity of flocking material is then propelled back against the web I0 by means of beaters 29 and an interposed belt 30, the fibres which fall through the interstices of the web l0 being beaten back against the underside of the web where they willbe caught and anchored by the adhesive on the web.

The agitation of the conveyor 2| and the web l0 resulting from the operations of the heaters 29 not only propels the flock against the underside of the web, but also causes any flock which is only loosely held or trapped between the fibres and not adhered to the mesh to fall therefrom.

When the product is made as above described,

the warp wires or strands 3| and the weft wires or strands 32 will have the fibres 33 of the flock extending all about them as shown in Fig. 3, and the fibres will extend into the interstices 34 of the wire as shown on the right-hand side of ljig. 2. The extent to which the fibres close the interstices 34 depends, of course, upon the dimensions of the interstices and the length of the flocking fibres.

After the Web has received the flocking material, it may be conveyed under another bank of infra-red lamps 35 or other suitable apparatus for causing the adhesive to dry or set, or, if desired. the strip may be festooned and placed in a drying or heating chamber to set the adhesive. After the adhesive on the web I0 is set, the web may be wound on a roll 36 for storage or other disposition.

In addition to the apparatus described, certain other means have been found desirable. For instance, in order to keep the interstices of the mesh from being filled or closed by a film of the cementitious material or the adhesive or both, blower nozzles 35 and 36' may be placed in the path of the mesh as it leaves the rollers l2|3 and l 8-H). The blasts of air from these nozzles will blow oil any surplus' or film which might tend to close the interstices and'such'surplus will fall on the deflectors 31 and 38 and flow back to enter the tanks I4 and 20. --Variations and modifications may be made within the scope of this invention and portions of a the improvements'may be used without others.

"I claim I 1. The method of making a flocked open mesh strip fabric which includes the steps of applying a coating of adhesive material to both sides of the strands of the strip; directing toward one side of the strip a quantity of flocking material in excess of that which adheres to said one side so thatthe exces portion of the flocking materia1 passes through the interstices of the strip; simulta'neously propellingback against the strands of the strip the excess portion of the flocking material to cause the latter to adhere to the other side of the strip; and causing the adhesive material to be set.

2. The method of making a flocked open mesh strip fabric which includes the steps of app y a coating of adhesive material to both sides of the strands of the strip; removing excess adhesive from openings in the mesh strip; directing toward one side of the strip a quantity of flocking material in excess of that which adheres to said one side so that the excess portion of the flocking material passes through the interstices of the strip; simultaneously propelling back against the strands of the strip the excess portion of the flocking material to cause the latter to adhere to the other side of the strip; and causing the adhesive material to be set.

3. The method of making a flocked open mesh strip fabric which comprises the steps of applying to the strip cementitious material to form blobs thereof at the intersections of the strands constituting the mesh for holding the strands against casual relative movement; setting the cementitious material; applying a coating of adhesive material to both sides of the strip; directing toward one side of the strip a quantity of flocking material in excess of that which adheres to said one side so that the excess portion of the flockin material passes through the interstices of the strip; simultaneously propelling back against the strands of the strip the excess portion of the flocking material :tocause thelatter to adhere to the other side of the strip; and causing the adhesive material to be set.

4. The method of continuously making a flocked open mesh fabric strip which comprises the steps of continuously advancing the strip along a predetermined 'path and at a predetermined speed; applying a coating of heat-set adhesive materia1 to both sides of the stripes it passesalong a predetermined portion of said path; directing toward one side of the strip, at a subsequent predetermined portion of said path, a quantity of flocking material in excess of that which adheres to said one side so that the excess portion of the flocking material passes through the interstices of the strip; simultaneously propelling back against the strands of the strip the excess portion of the flocking material to cause the latter to adhere to the other side of the strip; and thereafter settin the adhesive material and binding the flocking material to the strands of the mesh of the advancing fabric strip.

JOHN FERRANTE.

REFERENCES CITED The, following references are of record in the file of this patent:

Number UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Hefti Dec. 26, 1939 Faris Jan. 4, 1944 Richter Feb. 5, 1935 Ferrante May 16, 1944 Hiers June 13, 1944 Salmon Mar. 24, 1891 King Nov. 12, 1935 Williams Nov. 14, 1944 

